Sepia-toned photo of icebergs in calm water, creating a serene and foggy atmosphere with reflections on the surface.

Why anything exists

Here’s a new answer to the old question ‘why is there something rather than nothing?’ (It’s neither simple nor easy)

essayMetaphysics

Why anything exists

Here’s a new answer to the old question ‘why is there something rather than nothing?’ (It’s neither simple nor easy)

Andrew T Brenner

Popular this month

Silhouette of a hiker with a walking stick against a backdrop of layered mountains on a clear day; photo.

essayTechnology and the self

Deskilling the body

We are, moment by moment, doing less sensing, navigating, remembering, walking, choosing, and attending

Melanie Challenger

Black and white photo of two men shaking hands while a woman looks on with a wary expression, set in an urban environment.

essayPhilosophy of mind

How intuitions work

Just as seeing a tree gives you reason to believe it’s there, sensing that a stranger is creepy gives you reason to walk away

Marc A Moffett

Side view of a marble bust of an elderly man with a stern expression on a dark background.

essayThe ancient world

How to be a (Roman) man

Cicero’s ideal of manly virtue stressed the performance of self-control and bravery, not boastful egotism and domination

Catharine Edwards

A person walking uphill on a snowy slope against a cloudy sky with wind-blown snow patterns.

essayMood and emotion

Love with nowhere to go

Grief is not only for the dead. When we are unable to honour other profound losses, we become strangers to ourselves

Derek van Zoonen

A smiling elderly woman in traditional attire holding a brush, standing against a red textured background.

essayMeaning and the good life

The wholehearted life

Roshi Joan Halifax is an original, generous, gritty and profound Buddhist teacher. How does she look back on her life?

Ben Daitz

Painting of two people kneeling and a person in a hat by a campfire under a tree, near a river and colourful flowers.

videoStories and literature

A legendary Australian gold hunt, told from an Aboriginal perspective

4 minutes

Black and white photo of a group of men in flat caps and coats, a young man sitting on a brick wall looks on.

essayPolitical philosophy

Equality talk

In the summer of 1646, the idea of equality gained new and profound depths. We are still catching up with the consequences

Teresa M Bejan

Illustration of a segmented, horn-shaped fossil-like object on a rectangular base with a greenish texture.

videoPalaeontology

How a palaeontologist decodes fossils from the dawn of complex life

6 minutes

Abstract painting of a person with a green face in a pink hat surrounded by floating houses and goats against a colourful sky.

videoChildhood and adolescence

A Cubist painting becomes two kids’ immersive animated world

3 minutes

An image of a vibrant, multicoloured nebula with stars, glowing clouds and cosmic dust in deep space.

essayPhysics

Celestial nuisance

The cosmos has become a lab for the Big Questions in physics. Along the way, we’ve lost sight of its glorious messiness

Dylan Jow

Digital image of a city street with abstract colours: blue trees, pink sky, yellow buildings, purple car and labels like “vegetation”.

videoTechnology and the self

Meet the invisible workers who teach self-driving cars to ‘see’

22 minutes

Abstract photo of a blurred person sitting at a desk behind textured glass, creating a warm, distorted effect.

essayNeurodiversity

Methodical/mercurial

I need order and routine – just as much as I crave excitement and variety. What’s life like with both autism and ADHD?

Sarah Hendrickx

Photo of a round well viewed from inside, with bright light at the top and wooden walls surrounding it.

videoEcology and environmental sciences

In tiny biospheres, an artist reflects the fragility of our own

5 minutes

A foggy road leading to a distant church, flanked by trees, a building and powerlines, creating an eerie atmosphere.

essayPolitical philosophy

Believing and thinking

The separation of church and state has an unspoken psychological basis: we choose what we believe, but not what we think

Neil Van Leeuwen & Jacob Eisler

Photo of a close-up hourglass with sand flowing in the centre against a dark background.

videoMetaphysics

Always with us yet ever elusive – on the knottiness of ‘now’

58 minutes

A group of whales surfacing in a green sea near a rocky forested shoreline.

essayEvolution

The self-making world

Long mocked and misunderstood, Lamarck’s radical idea that organisms shape themselves and their world is making a comeback

Jessica Riskin

Black and white photo of a man with many arms doing different tasks: smoking, writing, reading and using scissors.

essayCosmopolitanism

In praise of the dilettante

A wayfaring cosmopolitan who never gets stuck, the dilettante is the right anti-hero for our hyper-specialised age

Jay Miller

Photo of a mosque on a street with snow-capped mountains and blue sky in background and people, cars and a flying pigeon in the foreground

videoWellbeing

An Afghan woman recalls how her country’s devastation led to her own

8 minutes

A frosted glass door with metal handle, card reader and a number 0 sign on a beige wall, indoors.

essayPhysics

The physics of getting fired

Physics offered me a sense of order and purpose. But when life got messy I realised it had a much deeper insight to give

Zahaan Bharmal

A man with a white beard examines an ancient tablet in a library, surrounded by books and various artefacts.

videoThe ancient world

Letters from Bronze Age rulers reveal how little diplomacy has changed

42 minutes

essayMood and emotion

Love with nowhere to go

Grief is not only for the dead. When we are unable to honour other profound losses, we become strangers to ourselves

Derek van Zoonen

Art Deco painting of a woman in a headscarf driving a car staring intently, with bold colours and stylised forms.

videoArt

The bisexual artist who reimagined womanhood for the Jazz Age

16 minutes

Soldiers in a dimly lit room, some standing and some seated on a patterned floor with sunlight streaming through a window behind them.

essayWar and peace

How to build real peace

From Colombia to Syria, I’ve seen that capitalist logic can’t help to rebuild postwar countries but cooperatives can

Azize Aslan

Video of a match striking against a textured surface creating a small flame with a dark background.

essayHistory of technology

Traction!

Tribologists study friction: what happens when things rub together. It’s indispensable, from the wheel to the paths of stars

Jennifer R Vail

Photo of a boy in a sports jacket, looking thoughtful with his reflection in a dimly lit mirror behind him.

videoTechnology and the self

What happened when the only country to ban TV lifted the ban?

10 minutes

A group hug in a shed doorway, with people embracing closely. Blue walls, metal roof and a door are visible.

essayHome

Other people

Disconnection is at the heart of today’s crises. So my husband and I chose a radical and revealing remedy: living communally

Elizabeth Oldfield

Photo of a subway station with people and makeshift sleeping areas on the platform, white columns and a distant tunnel.

videoWar and peace

What four years of ceaseless war looks like to Ukrainian civilians

36 minutes

essayPhilosophy of mind

How intuitions work

Just as seeing a tree gives you reason to believe it’s there, sensing that a stranger is creepy gives you reason to walk away

Marc A Moffett